John Young 1930-2018

John Young—one of the most celebrated astronauts in the history of American spaceflight—has died today, at the age of 87. Young was my favorite of the Apollo astronauts (Sorry, Jim Lovell). Hail Columbia! follows the run-up to the first Space Shuttle flight in 1981.

Young flew in space six times, and would have made more flights if he hadn’t had some choice words with management in the aftermath of the Challenger accident. He was originally slated to be the commander of the Space Shuttle flight immediately after Challenger, which would have deployed the Hubble Space Telescope. But that flight was delayed until they could get the Shuttle back up and running. By that time, Young was in the penalty box.

It would be hard to overestimate Young’s influence on the NASA program; as the organization’s longest-serving active astronaut, he flew on the Gemini missions, piloted the Space Shuttle, and is one of only three people who’ve ever been to the moon on two separate occasions.

Keith Conrad got his first job in radio in Huntsville, Alabama the day after the 2000 Presidential election when he was a freshman in college. He’s produced radio shows in Huntsville, Milwaukee, WI, Atlanta, GA and finally back in his hometown of Chicago. Currently he lives in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood steps away from the Red Line. The train goes by so often you don’t even notice it. Keith has been dabbling in the Internet arts for a while now, in various roles both professional and just for fun.

Geek/CounterGeek

Each week mild-mannered radio producers Misty Callahan and Keith Conrad talk pop culture news and debate a controversial topic in contemporary geekery: Kirk vs. Picard? Was Douglas Quaid dreaming in Total Recall? No topic is off limits.